Exploring display factors that influence co-located collaboration: angle, size, number, and user arrangement

Abstract

With recent advances in display technologies, co-located collaborators now have a number of viable options when choosing technology to incorporate into their face-to-face work activities. Co-located CSCW solutions have been explored for desktop computers, wall displays, tabletop displays, and networked devices including laptops and PDAs. Deciding which display technology is appropriate for a given situation requires an understanding of the impact of the underlying dimensions of the display technologies on co-located collaborative interactions. This paper presents a series of exploratory field studies that explore four factors of physical display technology: display angle, user arrangement, display size, and number of displays. The results from this work provide insights into the strengths and weaknesses of these various display factors, which can help system designers make informed choices regarding display technology. 1